On money transfer in Africa in 2018

The first time I would leave Nigeria to visit another African country
was in 2015. My first time out of Nigeria was to the US, twice in 2014.
But this short story is about when I went to Kenya and got stuck
because of the geniuses at the Central Bank of Nigeria. This was when
the CBN directed banks to begin limiting foreign debits to stave off a
looming recession, for all the good that did. Anyhow, here I was stuck
in a foreign country with no money, because my debit card had suddenly
stopped working. In fact, I found out about the CBN directive right
after enjoying a large lunch at a Java House in Kileleshwa, because the
payment was declined. I only escaped washing plates the rest of the day
because my host’s sister was kind enough to settle my bill via Mpesa
after a few frantic WhatsApp messages.Of course, my problems didn’t end with paying for my most recent
burger. I was still going to be in Nairobi for at least a week, and I
had places to go, things to do, and people to meet. How was I going to
function without money? I had a brief lightbulb moment when I remembered
that GTBank had a branch in Kenya. Or did they? My elation dissolved
into irritation when I was told that both banks don’t actually talk to
each other. The GTBank in Kenya had no way to interact with your
Nigerian GTBank account. I remember thinking how incredibly absurd that
was.There was also that time when we hired a staff writer in Nairobi, and
I remember that paying his salary was a nigh Sisyphean task that saw me
attempt all kinds of methods to get the money across. I used PayPal and
Bitcoin via Bitpesa. Both came with painful exchange rate haircuts. At
some point I was tempted to get on a plane and go and hand them the cash
personally. In the time we had that writer on the team, I always hated
the end of the month.In January 2018, my GTBank debit card got “swallowed” by an ATM in
Kileleshwa while I was trying to help a friend withdraw cash that they
had sent to my account in Naira, so that I could physically withdraw it,
deposit it into my Mpesa, and then finally send it to a vendor they’d
done business with in Nairobi. Na wa.Besides Western Union, there is no real way to move money between
African countries. I don’t know a lot about payments, but as a user of
financial services, this just feels like an absurd problem to have in
2018. A problem that as Qz Africa editor Yinka Adegoke writes, is an untapped opportunity for
money transfer firms. London-based World Remit is the star of that
piece, but I feel like startups like Paystack and Flutterwave will
become part of that narrative soon.Until then, it’s either pay exorbitant Western Union fees, hope for
the best with Bitcoin, get a haircut on PayPal, or go around looking for
your country man in the African country where you need to send someone
money. A luta continua.PS: I have been told that Ecobank branches across Africa talk to each other.